When it comes to typographical characters, one cannot ignore the beautiful sweeping lines and shapes of the ampersand. While I would love to give you a history lesson on how it evolved from the combination of the letters E and T and then took on all of these crazy stylized looks triggered from the minds of a long line of designers, I wont. This post is focused more on the beauty of this stylish character and some practical uses as well.
For this article, I’ve rounded up a lengthy list of attractive and elegant ampersand characters both to provide a little eye candy and to also help inspire your inner creativity. You’ll see a variety of examples of how this symbol is being used in modern times and the many different shapes that it now takes on. At the end of the article, I have also provided a roundup of several different fonts that are great for making use of the character. Here are 70 Creative and Practical Uses of the Ampersand.
The Pretty Ones
Let’s start this post with several creative and inspiring examples of the ampersand character. Some of these were chosen for their sheer beauty, some for their strong colors, a few for their textures and others were just simply amazing. Whatever the reason, the examples below showcase some very interesting uses of this unique typographical character.
24 Line Poynder Ampersand Print
Painted Ampersand
24 Line Ampersand – ‘Poynded’
Ampersand (New Kensington, PA)
Ampersand on a Blue Awning
Ampersand (Brackenridge, PA)
From Neriko & Sons Construction Truck
Ampersand &
Ampersand
Ampersand 2
My Ampersand for the Ampersand Show
&
&
Serif &
Ampersand
An Ampersand You Shall Have
And Baskerville
Ampersand
Cork Board &
And?
Ampersand &
& Poster
&
Pewter Number Ampersand
Ampersand
Ampersand
Moebius Strip Ampersand
Ampersand &
And The Ampersand
Ampersand &
Caslon Metal Type Ampersand &
&1
Ampersand &
Awning Ampersand (New York, NY)
Creative: Ampersand Collection – Belgium Knot
Ampersand &
Ampersand on Cracked Glass
Recaf&ate Ampersand
Ampersand
Ampersand
H&iti
Hhumbert7′s Found
Ampersand for my new font
Downtown LA
40 & …
DSCN5686
Ampersand!
Ampersand
Ampersand &
Ampersand
The Useful Ones
Now that you’ve seen many different creative examples of the ampersand symbol, let’s take a look at some practical uses by examining several different fonts which make good use of this curvy and sweeping character. Below you will find 20 different fonts all of which include an attractive ampersand symbol. The majority of these are free, but I couldn’t ignore a few paid fonts that stood out from the crowd. Check your fonts folder, you may already have them installed.
Note: Click on the image to be taken to the download source.
Wrapping Things Up
That’s all I’ve got for this post. Hopefully you’ve found some inspiration from some of the examples or maybe found a font or two that might come in handy for future projects. If you know of some great uses of the ampersand, a font that takes full advantage of the character or just want say a few things about this roundup, I’d love to hear your feedback in the comment section below. Thanks!
Written by Shawn Ramsey
When I’m not brewing my own beer or hiking through the local National Forest, I’m busy building a more beautiful web.
Twitter
Nice one – really love the Ampersand. Very inspirational and creative article, thanks!
Thanks Marco! I appreciate the comment.
Great post! Many of these are awesome. I have one to add as well – Ampersandwich: http://j.mp/cK03Dt
Strangely, the ampersandwich makes me hungry. Thanks for the link Chris!
Very nice – One of my favorite characters in the font world. Here is another resource worth sharing http://www.haafe.com/ Vector ampersands and Open Type fonts. Thanks for putting this up.
My favorite character, hands down. Those are some attractive ampersands in the link you provided. Thanks Gerry!
Very inspirational article. Its really great to see how people can be very creative even in the simplest of things.
Great stuff
Glad you enjoyed it Richie!
A great compilation of creative Ampersand.
i love ‘&’
Thanks for putting